Rolling Pin Pies & Cakes manager Nathan Williams says he will never get sick of winning awards after the much-loved Ocean Grove bakery took home a swag of medals at Australia’s Best Pie & Pastie Competition in Sydney.
The judges tasted over 2000 entries from 346 bakeries all over Australia, with Rolling Pin hauling in six gold medals, eight silver medals and was the overall winner of the country’s top pie.
The surf and turf pie delighted judges and Mr Williams said it was a trial by error process.
“Our jumbo chunky beef pie had won a national title already so I spent some time thinking about how we could take that pie to another level and decided that adding some surf to the turf might do the trick,” he said.
“My first attempt was with Morten Bay bugs. I didn’t know how to cook them and I ruined about $80 worth of bugs, but the garlic cream sauce was amazing. I swapped the bugs for prawns and the rest is history.”
The bakery has won more than 350 medals and 11 national titles.
Mr Williams said waiting for the judges’ decision is always a “pretty stressful time”.
“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and have very high expectations going into competition,” he said.
“It’s almost relief first, then we breathe, and then we get to enjoy it. Just getting the pies to competition has its challenges. I sent our entries via courier overnight and the two packages got separated in transit.
“The winning pie didn’t arrive at the competition until 5.45pm – 15 minutes later and they may never have been judged.
“Waiting for the announcement of the winners on the final day of competition is agonising. A lot has to go right to win a title.”
Mr Williams praised his team.
“Someone makes the fillings, another makes the pastry and others meticulously put them together,” he said.
“They are an amazing young team. We have three apprentices that have only been with us for 12 months. And they can just keep producing amazing products day in day out.”
Justin Flynn
